Boom time for Drone Deals at DSEI

Thousands of military buyers will descend on London from 9-13 September to be wooed, wined and dined by military salesmen from the world’s largest arms companies. Many of those buyers will arrive with the same item at the top of their shopping list: drones.

Drones have become the latest ‘must have’ weapon and companies large and small are plying their drone wars (sorry, wares) at this year’s show. Despite the huge public concern at the rise of the remote warfare, drone industry lobbyists are working hard behind the scenes to “relax” controls on drone proliferation. Of course at DSEI, the word ‘drone’ is unlikely to pass any military salesperson’s lips; ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’ (UAV) or preferably ‘Remotely Piloted Aerial System’ (RPAS) are the de-rigueur terms when it comes to striking deals – at least in public.

“The zone is a dedicated area on the show floor which was established to promote and demonstrate the capabilities of a diversity of unmanned systems. At DSEI 2011, demonstrations included unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). It is planned that during DSEI 2013 unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) will be able to join other maritime demonstrations in the dock adjacent to the ExCeL. Unmanned Combat Air Systems (UCAS) are also expected to feature.”

As well as flying drones at DSEI itself there will also be “live data links to DSEI from unmanned systems operating remotely outside of London.” We believe these drones will be flying at the Drones test centre at Aberporth in West Wales.

Over the past five years we have seen a massive rise in the use of armed drones around the globe. While it has been a ‘boom time’ for the drone companies, in Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent people have been killed in drones strikes. At this year’s DSEI once again Israeli, British and US drone companies will be hawking their ‘battle-tested’ drones to military buyers. Isn’t it time we stopped them?